Wiliaquo: He laid a large blanket over the grass, the crossed threads shimmering with a soft moonlight as the two sat atop the mountain. The night air was restive; gusts swirled about them, pulling at the corners of the blanket.
He frowned, holding up his hands. With a metallic jangle, he shook his silver bracelets against one another, and the temper of the wind broke, leaving a soft whisper.
He looked up at the great white crystal that sat atop his castle in the distance, its light vibrating like a pulse. "Come on, just tonight, try to ease your energy a little," he whispered to it.
Wet footprints splattered squelchily behind him through the grass. A slight ripple of water vibrated each time he moved. He smiled weakly. "Perfect timing."
Tiffany: "Yeah, I'm mainly here because my mother wants me to be. Don't think too much of it." She walked past him and sat down on the blanket. The grass around her shimmered with moisture, and soon, small puddles formed beneath her, soaking the edges of the cloth.
Wiliaquo: He took a breath, the horizon sparkling with gentle heavenly strength. The stars weren't ready yet; they always hung in suspense before recollecting. He settled down next to her, maintaining a respectful space between them.
"Tiffany," he began, his tone gentle yet authoritative. "Why don't you like me?"
Tiffany: She blinked, her eyebrows knitting. "What?" She edged a bit away, sitting up straight.
Wiliaquo: "You always find a way to convey some resentment," he noticed, studying her intently. "Maybe subtle to everyone else, but being someone who has witnessed a lot of emotion, I notice when someone slowly backs off. Why is that?
Tiffany: She puffed sharply out of her nose, then moved away from him. Her reflection glowed faintly in the puddle at her knees. She hugged her knees together and shot a look at the wet grass. "I don't. It's not that I don't like you, Wiliaquo. It's just. more complicated than that."
Wiliaquo: "Complicated how?" He cocked his head a little to the side, his voice soft but questioning.
Tiffany: She grunted, her voice increasing, "It just is, okay?"
A shivery tremor coursed through the water at her feet as she pronounced.
Wiliaquo: "But that doesn't leave me much of a clear answer-"
Tiffany: "I DON'T LIKE THE IDEA OF WHAT THIS COULD DO, OKAY?!!" Her voice thundered off the cliffs, scaring a few evening birds from their perches.
Wiliaquo: He stayed still, his eyes calm, the wind carrying away the echo. "The truth comes forth," he said quietly. "You are afraid of the consequences of us being caught."
Tiffany: Her liquid hands clenched around her knees, faint ripples forming where her fingers met. "It's not just about you, or even her. I'm afraid of what this could do to me."
Her voice trembled. "If you or she gets caught doing these things, then you two will be killed and replaced.".
Her form quivered as small droplets fell from her cheeks. "I don't want the thought of my own mother dying to live with me, to haunt me for my entire life. It took me so long to accept that she loved me after my first parents died. If she gets replaced. Then I'll be alone again."
Tears slipped down her translucent skin, merging into the puddles below.
Wiliaquo: He looked at her silently, the hurt in her words heavy on his chest. His eyes wandered upward to the sky, where the filmy streaks of starlight began to change and merge.
"I don't know if it might have crossed your mother's mind," he spoke softly, "but it has crossed my mind at times, the possibility that our lives could be completely erased. All that we've accomplished, all that we hold precious, gone in an instant flash of darkness."
He turned his eyes, reflecting the distant lights of his people below, small glows flickering like candles on the hillside. "But more than that," he continued, his voice low, "what would become of all that I cherish?"
He lingered for a moment, the wind running through his hair softly. "I treat everyone here like family," he grumbled to himself. "And the thought of this falling through. Everyone losing the quiet life I gave them, it frightens me."
He gazed down the cliff again, the villages below glinting faintly in the distance. "The sight of what I gave them, being faded to an outdated remembrance. That," he exhaled slowly, "fills me with dread to my very core."
Tiffany: She sat in silence for what felt like an eternity, the only sound the muffled trickle of water running off her skin and coloring the blanket's fabric beneath her. The evening air was thick, not with chill, but with the thickness of all that was unsaid.
Her eyes lifted to the horizon where the first, tentative pulses of light began to weave their way through the clouds. "You sound afraid, too," she whispered finally.
Wiliaquo: He released a soft, brief laugh, neither of mirth nor of fear, but of recognition."Even kings are afraid of something, Tiffany." He twisted his hand up, allowing a breeze to pass through between his fingers. "Or perhaps that is what makes us human."
Tiffany: She looked at him for the first time in a while, her rain-soft face mirroring the moon in shattered glints. "You think fear makes you real," she breathed. "I think it just makes you human."
Her voice trembled. "And humans die." She pulled her knees to her again, but not in rejection, more in indecision. "I don't want to lose her, Wiliaquo. Not in this world. Not in you. Not in anyone."
Her voice faltered, the edges of her words shaking."And yet… I can't even hate you."
Wiliaquo: He scowled down for an instant, the corners of his mouth unfastening. Then his gaze rose again, over the mountain ridges, to the skies above.
The stars, previously unmoving and scattered, began to travel. It began slowly, then with purpose. Trails of light curved and curled across the sky, forming new constellations like strokes on black silk.
The white crystal's light on his castle grew dim, as if observing even it. "The Alignment is underway," he whispered. His words were full of wonder and of sorrow.
Tiffany: Her own tears came more rapidly now, but they shone with reflected starlight, creating each one into a tiny glowing sphere before it dissolved in the grass."It's beautiful," she breathed. "And terrifying."
Wiliaquo: He nodded slowly, the starlight settling on his face in pale silver."As all truths are." He turned to her then, actually looked at her, and for one moment, the chasm between them didn't appear as wide as the stars themselves.
Tiffany: The wind picked up gently again, blowing her hair into her face. She did not push it away. "Perhaps," she said quietly, "this evening doesn't have to be about fear."
Wiliaquo: His bracelets clinked again, and the wind obeyed, growing into a gentle whisper."No," he whispered, this time softer. "Not tonight."
Side by side they sat beneath the newly created stars, two fragile bodies poised between love and duty and the slow shifting of the universe, while above them, far beyond, the heavens continued their movement in ways yet unknown to mortal minds.
Above the crests of the mountains, the night spread itself out into a cold stillness as the stars started to travel, slowly at first, and then in a celestial precision that was beyond men's grasp. Streaks of amethyst and silver light curved through the black sky, uniting into a wide, shining sigil that pulsed like a living heart.
The constellations twisted out of their familiar forms, reshaping themselves into symbols older than speech, and each radiance sent forth soft murmurs which echoed across the cold air. The sky, in a brief, gasping instant, appeared to be catching its breath
Wiliaquo: One of his bracelets began flashing, drawing his attention for a moment. He tapped on the bracelet, listening to the transmission message for a brief moment. His calm facial expression dropped to one of great concern.
Tiffany: She noticed his shift, turning towards him with a look of confusion, "Are you okay?"
Wiliaquo: He looked at her with wide eyes, "Queen Gena was just killed..."